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Semiotics, or semiotic theory, is the study of how signs and symbols make meaning. This plays a huge role in a variety of areas, including linguistics, art, literature, cinema, politics, and religion. Signs and symbols are important, as they are used to deliver messages quickly. These messages may be used to trigger responses such as hunger or desire, to suggest ideas, or to quickly inform the viewer of potential dangers.
There are two key figures in the history of semiotics that you should know: Charles Sanders Peirce and Roland Barthes.
Roland Barthes was a French literary critic who extended early semiotic theory to mass media and popular culture. He's considered to be the founder of contemporary semiotics.
Charles Sanders Peirce was an American philosopher and developer of the formal theory of semiotics, and he developed a precise system for describing signs that included terms like symbol, icon, and index.
A sign is something that stands for something other than itself. In other words, it is a representation.
EXAMPLE
A stop sign tells drivers to stop, and a caution sign tells them to be careful. A “road closed” sign stops drivers from entering a blocked street. However, none of these signs depict the actual action of stopping, being cautious, or a blocked roadway.
A sign for the London Underground, the subway system for one of the largest cities in the world, doesn’t show a train track or people standing together inside of a rail car. The symbol of a red circle implies a closed loop, suggesting the concept of a continuous route. The sign relays information with the universal symbol of a circle. By using a circle instead of an image of a rail car or a train track, the symbol stands for something other than itself, so its message communicates the ideas of interconnectivity and continuous movement.
A symbol is a sign which has no logical connection to what it signifies. The viewer has to learn the connection between the sign and its meaning.
Look at the logo of the Google Chrome web browser below.
The viewer must learn that this logo is associated with Chrome as a brand or product, and that it's tied to a service or application—in this case, the browser. It is up to the viewer to learn that connection. One of the advantages of visual communication with symbols is the disconnection from language. Because there is no text attached to the symbol, it is recognizable to anyone who has been introduced to the brand or product, despite what language they speak. Although major brands often have text associated with symbolism, their identities are likely to be so widely known that the brand’s symbol communicates a message without the need for text. A symbol’s properties, such as shape and color, are recognizable when text may be absent or indistinguishable.
EXAMPLE
A stop sign is instantly recognizable by its octangular shape and bright red color. While the white text clearly reads stop, the symbol is so well known that the viewer doesn’t need to understand the language the word stop is written in to successfully receive the message.An index is a sign that can be understood because it's logically linked to or affected by what it stands for. To put it simply, an index has a direct link between the sign and the object. This connection between the sign and the object can be represented in different ways. For instance, the sign below shows a winding road by logically linking the image of a curving arrow to the twists and turns of the physical path ahead.
A “wet floor” sign communicates to the viewer the need to take caution to avoid slipping, through the image of a man falling backwards above a straight line. The line represents the surface, and the person toppling backwards creates the logical connection of the risk of falling.
An icon is a sign that visually resembles what it signifies. A crosswalk sign, for instance, clearly resembles what it depicts, which is a person crossing the street via a crosswalk.
Likewise, a “no smoking” sign represents the physical object of an ignited cigarette emitting smoke.
Sometimes an image can be described by more than one of these terms, such as this sign with icons of trains, taxis, buses, and symbols for bars and restaurants.
Some symbols will communicate a widely understood meaning, such as a heart representing love, while others may be more subjective based on personal experience. A wedding ring is both a sign and symbol. It’s a sign that the wearer is married and a symbol for anything that person chooses to associate it with, such as love. In the case of the wedding ring mentioned above, symbolism is usually more personalized. Although a wedding ring is a clear indication that a person is married, the ring itself will trigger memories and feelings specific to the individual wearing the ring. A newlywed or a person in a happy marriage will likely find a wealth of positive inspiration from the ring’s symbolism, but what about someone who has just experienced a divorce? Because the symbolism of a wedding ring is more abstract, it relies on personal experience to tailor its meaning.
Source: THIS TUTORIAL WAS AUTHORED BY MARIO E. HERNANDEZ FOR SOPHIA LEARNING. PLEASE SEE OUR TERMS OF USE.
